MEPs in European Parliament want Facebook to submit to a full audit by European Union bodies to determine whether the U.S. based social media company adequately protects users’ personal data. The demand made in the form of an EU resolution adopted Thursday, October 25, 2018, follows the company’s recent breach scandal, in which data belonging to 87 million Facebook users around the world were improperly obtained and misused.

The Parliament resolution also recommends Facebook make additional changes to combat election interference — asserting the company has not just breached the trust of European users “but indeed EU law”.

• Electoral laws need to be updated to reflect the new digital reality• Member states should investigate alleged misuse of online political spaces by foreign forces• As follow-up action to the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal, MEPs call for a full audit on Facebook and new measures against election meddling.

In a resolution adopted on Thursday, MEPs urge Facebook to allow EU bodies to carry out a full audit to assess data protection and security of users’ personal data, following the scandal in which the data of 87 million Facebook users was improperly obtained, and misused.

MEPs say that Facebook did not only breach the trust of EU citizens, “but indeed EU law”. They recommend that Facebook make changes to its platform to comply with EU data protection law.

Measures against election manipulation

MEPs note that the data obtained by Cambridge Analytica may have been used for political purposes, by both sides in the UK referendum on membership of the EU and to target voters during the 2016 American presidential election.

They highlight the urgency of countering any attempt to manipulate EU elections and to adapt electoral laws to reflect the new digital reality.

• banning profiling for electoral purposes, including use of online behaviour that may reveal political preferences;

• that social media platforms should label content shared by bots, speed up the process of removing fake accounts and work with independent fact-checkers and academia to tackle disinformation;

• investigations should be carried out by member states with the support of Eurojust, into alleged misuse of the online political space by foreign forces.

The resolution summarises the conclusions reached following last May’s meeting between leading MEPs and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and the three subsequent hearings. It also references the data breach suffered by Facebook on 28 September.

The Libe committee also called for an update to EU competition rules to reflect what it dubs “the digital reality”, and investigation of what it called the “possible monopoly” of big tech social media platforms.

Commenting in a statement today, following the parliament’s vote, civil liberties committee chair Claude Moraes said: “This is a global issue, which has already affected our referenda and our elections. This resolution sets out the measures that are needed, including an independent audit of Facebook, an update to our competition rules, and additional measures to protect our elections. Action must be taken now, not just to restore trust in online platforms, but to protect citizens’ privacy and restore trust and confidence in our democratic systems.”

The resolution follows an appearance by Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg in front of the EU parliament’s Conference of Presidents in May, and a series of parliament committee hearings including with Facebook staffers.

The EU’s tough new data protection framework, GDPR, only came into force this May — so the Cambridge Analytica breach is being handled under the bloc’s prior data protection framework, comprising a patchwork of Member State laws.

Google [Alphabet Inc.] will soon charge hardware companies up to $40 per device to use Google apps, under a new licensing plan that will replace one struck down by the EU earlier this year as anti-competitive, reports Reuters.

Facebook is working very hard right now to prove it can be trusted to protect users from malicious fake news, political disinformation, and cyberattacks intended to throw the 2018 midterms. What Facebook is not doing: providing details.

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